A ribbon cutting ceremony has been held at Simon Balle All-Through School in Hertford, to mark the official grand opening of The Elm Sports Centre.
The grand opening of the centre, built by East of England construction company R G Carter, took place on April 30, with co-headteachers Rachel Kirk and Michael Moss gathering at the entrance with staff and students from all year groups.
The event was streamed online to all students across the school so they could celebrate the important milestone.
Ellie Newman, Head of PE, said: “This space is more than just a new building.
“This is an exciting opportunity to enhance the school’s PE curriculum, to develop our extracurricular provision and to raise the profile and standard of sport at Simon Balle; helping to push performance and to build strong teams and individuals.
“Perhaps one day, a future Olympian will say it all began right here.
“We want all our students to enjoy being active, to challenge themselves, and to have fun doing it.
“We hope this facility will be a place where students try new sports, build confidence and discover new passions.”
This new 700 sqm Sports Centre will create a flexible space to provide for a wide variety of sports, including cricket, indoor football and hockey.
Enhancing the school’s existing sports facilities, it will support the curriculum for all its students from age 4-18, as well as provide space that can be hired by local sports clubs and organisations.
Tracy Fisher, from the Special Olympics East Herts Chiefs Basketball Club, said: “We have been established for around 14 years and cater for players with intellectual disabilities of mixed ages and genders.
“We train weekly and enter regional, national and international competitions; we even have Olympic gold medallists in our squad.
“We have had to move venues several times, which can be upsetting for some of our players and we are so excited to be able to hire the new Elm Sports Centre at Simon Balle.
“We were so impressed with this state-of-the-art sports facility, especially the backboards and hoops.
“It can be extremely difficult to find facilities to hire in the area so this will make a massive difference to our club knowing that we have found our forever basketball home.”
The new centre opened to the public on May 1, offering the community a first glimpse of this modern sports resource.
The PE Department ran live demonstrations to showcase the new facilities and school’s sporting expertise, including trampolining, basketball and badminton.
R G Carter, designers of the building Saunders Architects, and staff from the school were also on hand to discuss the building’s journey, from concept to completion.
The Elm Sports Centre already has a busy evening programme booked in, and over the coming months, a series of sport masterclasses and competitions will be held for students, to give them firsthand experience of this highly anticipated new resource.
This attractive new building was designed using materials that blend in with the school’s natural surroundings.
The facades feature bronze perforated cladding which forms a decorative elm tree woodland surround, reflected in the name of the centre.
Located at the front of the existing school, The Elm Sports Centre is ideally placed to be easily accessed out-of-hours, with the new reception providing a welcoming new main entrance for both visitors to the school and access for the community.
The project was funded by the Department for Education (DfE), through the Condition Improvement Fund.
For more on R G Carter see www.rgcarter-construction.co.uk